Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-09-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
Tbs Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subjecs; s'Hsow TO Treat COn.s
P0ny."
TEXT, " Girsn to Hospita'ity."-Romans,

large and commodious hotels in our towns.
and cities, and villages, will utterly extsrmi-
nate that grace which Abraham exhibited
when he entertained the angels, and which
Lot showed when he watched for guests at
the gate Of the city, and which Christ recog-
nized as positive requisite for entering
heaven, when he declared: II was a stranger
and ye took Me in"
/ propose to speak this morning of the trials
and rewards of Christian hospitality. The
| first trial often comes in the whim and &C.
centricity Of the guest himself. There are
great many excellent people who have pro-
tuberances of disposition, and sharp edges of
temperament, and unpliability Of character,
which mako them positive nuisance in any
house where they stay On short acquaint-
ance they will begin TO command the house
hold affairs, order the employees to unusual
| service, keep unseasonableh hours, use narcotics
in places offensive to sensitive nostrils, put
their feet at unusua., elevations, drop the ashes
! Of their Havana bn costly tapestry, open
bureaus they ought never to touch, and pry
into things they ought never to ses, aud be-
| come impervious to rousing bells and have
all the pecuiiarities of the gormandizer or the
| dySpeptic, and make excavations from poor
dentistry with unusual Implements, AMI in
thousand ways aifiict the household which
| proposes TO take care of them. Added to oil,
they stay too long. They have no idea whsn
their welcoms is worn out, and they
would be unmoved even by the bless NJ
which my friend GerIit Smith, the philan-
| thropist, asked one morning at his breakfast
table, on the day when he hoped that the
long protracted guests would depart saying:
20 Lord, bless this provision, and our friends
who leave us to-day!" But, my friends,
there are all4via5ions to be put on their side
OF the scale. Perhaps they have not had the
same refining influences about them in early
| life that you have had. Perhaps they havo
inherited eccentricities that they cannot help
Perhaps it Is your duty, by example, to show
| them better way. Perhaps they are sent to
be q trial for the development of your
| patience. Perhaps they were to be intended
as an illustration of the opposite OF what
you are trying to inculcate in the minds of
| your children. Perhaps it is to make your
home the brighter when thoy are gone.
| When our guests are CHEEKY, and fascinating
and elegant, it is very easy to entertain
them; but when we find in our guests that
which is antagonistic to our taste and senti-
ment, it is a positive triumph when we can
obey the words Of my text and be ''given to
hospitality"
Another trial in the using Of this grace is
Ia the toll and expenSe Of exercising It, In
tde well regulated househol,h things go
smoothly, but now you have introduced a
foreign element into the machinery, and
though you may stoutly declare that they
must take things as they find them, the
Martha will break in. The ungovernable
btON6N Uuo IuiIlcu ueSS5Il G06 lOluG
proves to be unmasticable, the delayed mar
keting, the perplexities of a caterer, the diff.
| Guilty of doing proper work, and yet always
being preSenUable. Though you may say
there shall be no care Or anxiety, there will
be care and there will be anxiety. In 1894
the Captain General provided very grand
entertainment, and among other things he
had fountain in his garden-a fountain of
strong drink. In it were four hogsheads of
brandy eight hogsheads OF water, twenty
/ five thousand lemons, thirteen hunredweight
of Lisbon sugar, five pounds Of grated nut
meg, three hundred toasted biscuits, and a
boat built on purpose was placed in the foln-
tain, and boy rowed around it and filled
the cups Of the people who came there to be
supplied. Well, you say that was a lux
urlous entertainment, and Of course the
man had no anxiety: but have to tell you,
that though you had, or propose, an enter
tainment like that, you have anxiety La
that very thing comes the Divine reward.
we were born to serve; and when we serve
others we servo God. The flush on that
woman's cheek, as she bends over the hot
stove, is as sacred in Gods sight as the flush
on the cheek OF one who, on hot day,
breaches the Gospel. We may servo God
with plate, and cutlery, and broom, as GER
tainly as we can serve Him with psalm book
and liturgy, Margaret, Queen Of Norway,
and Sweden, and Denmark, had a royal cup
of ten lips, on which was recorded the names
of the guests who had drunk from this cup.
And every Christian woman has royal cup,
on which are written all the names of those
who have ever been entertained by her in
Christian style-names not cut by human
ingenuity, but written by the hand of
Divine Jesus But, my friends, you are net
to toll unnecessarily. Though the fare be
plain, cheerful presidency of the table, and
cleanliness of appointments will be good
enough for anybody that ever comes to
Ofl1. hra,H Trl.. T..
the house or nobleman. Ee said: II will
come on one condition, and that is, that
you have nothing but potatoes on the table" !"
The requisition was complied with. Cyrus,
King of Persia, under the same circumstances.
prescribed that on the table there must be
nothing but bread. OF course these were
extremes, but they are illustrations of the
fact that more depends upon the banquetsrs
than upon the banquet. | want to lift this
idea OF Christian entertainment out of a posi-
tive bondage into q glorious inducement
Every effort you put forth, and every dollar
you give TO the entertainment of friend or
foe, you give directly to Christ. Suppose it
were announcer that the Loru Jesus Cnrist
would come to this place this week, what
woman IN this house would not be glad TO
wash for Him. or spread for Him q bed or
bake bread for Him There was one OF old
who washed for Him, drawing the water
from the well of her own tears. He is COM
ing, He will be here tomorrow. " "Inasmuch
as ye have done it to one of the least of these,
my brethren ye have done it TO Me In pict-
ure galleries we have often seen representa-
tions of Walter Scott AMI his friends, or
Washington Irving with his associates; but
all those engravngs will fade out, while
through everlasting ages, hanging luminous
and conspicuous, will be the picture of you
and your Christian guests.
You see we have passel out from the trials
into the rewards Of Christian hospitality
grand, glorious, and eternal. The first re-
ward of Christian hospitality is the Divine
benediction. When any one attends to
this duty, Gods blessing comes upon him
upon his companion, upon his children, upon
his dining-hal upon his parlor, upon his
nursery. The blessing comes in at the front
door, and the back door, and down through
the skylights, God draws long mark OF
credit for services received. Christ said to
His disciples: He that receiveth you, re-
ceiveth Me; and he that giyeth cup of cold
water in the name of a disciple shall in nc
wise lose his reward" As we have had SC
many things recorded against us in heaven,
it will be a satisfaction to have written on
unfailing archives, the fact that in the
month OF May, or June, or September, or De
cember, 1897, we made the tlssful mistake
of suppo5ing that we were entertaining weak
men like ourselves, when lol they showed
their pinio1s before they left, and we found
out that they were angels unawares
Another reward comes in the good wishes
and prayers of our guests. | do not think
ones house ever gets over having had good
man or woman abide there. George White
field used to scratch on the window of the
room where he was entertained a passage OF
Scripture, and in one case, after he left, the
whole household was converted by the read
ing Of that passage on the win low pane. The
woman of Shunem furnished little room
over the wall for Elisha, and al the ages
have heard the glorious consequences. On q
cod, stormy winter night, my father enter.
tainel Trueman Osborne, the evangelist and
through all eternity will thank God that
! Trueman Osborne stopped at our house. How
many Of oar guests have brought to use con